It took six pitchers, 13 runs and almost four hours, but the Sox locked up their first series victory since they beat…the Orioles before the All-Star break.
The bullpen made it a lot closer than it had to be, however. After pitching 3 2/3 scoreless innings last year, they failed to throw a scoreless frame in the last four of them. Brandon McCarthy, Neal Cotts, Mike MacDougal and Bobby Jenks each gave up at least one run as a 11-4 lead came within two feet of being completely erased.
Brandon McCarthy was roughed up in his one inning of work replacing Jon Garland. He allowed both of Garland’s inherited runners to score, then tossed two more runs onto the fire when Melvin Mora singled and Miguel Tejada follwed up with a two-run shots. The Orioles then loaded the bases on two walks and a single when Ramon Hernandez came up to the plate.
Hernandez hit it hard and deep to center field, and Brian Anderson drifted back…and caught it, standing right against the wall. The inning was over, and the Sox averted disaster.
And they’d avert disaster the next inning, when Mike MacDougal got Jeff Conine to ground out to end the inning (after throwing a wild pitch that hit off the front of home plate and over the backstop to bring in a run). And an inning later, when Matt Thornton forced Brian Roberts to pop out when he represented the tying run. And in the ninth inning, when Bobby Jenks forced Jay Gibbons to ground into a 6-4-3 double play, which scored a run but kept the tying run on deck.
Fortunately, the Sox kept hitting, enough to overcome both shoddy pitching and shoddy baserunning. The Sox blew the game open in a seven-run third inning, when Tadahito Iguchi topped off the inning with a two-out three run homer after Scott Podsednik couldn’t bring a man on third home with less than two outs. Iguchi was in a similar situation the previous inning when Pods popped up with a runner on third and one out, but Iguchi grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning. They wouldn't let rookie starter Jim Johnson, making his major-league debut, off the hook the second time around.
One would think an 8-3 lead would be enough, but after the Orioles retaliated, the Sox offense did just enough to keep Baltimore at bay. Jermaine Dye and A.J. Pierzynski went back-to-back off Russ Ortiz in the fourth, and Pierzynski, Joe Crede and Iguchi had RBI singles to answer Baltimore runs to preserve a multiple-run lead.
The Sox made a few baserunning errors:
- Pierzynski misread a throw home on a single in the first, and was hung up between the bases. Dye, the runner on third, would eventually be tagged out trying to draw attention away from Pierzynski and prolong the rundown.
- Juan Uribe was doubled up on Corey Patterson’s diving catch of Brian Anderson’s liner. The ball hung up there, and Uribe had already rounded second when Patterson made the catch.
- Podsednik was thrown out trying to steal second after getting his only hit of the night.
Pierzynski would make up for it with his 5-for-5, four-RBI day, and Uribe also had three hits.
Pods, on the other hand, had a truly lousy game, turning a 1-for-6 performance into an 0-for-6 day. He failed with runners in scoring position and less than two outs three times (Iguchi picked him up twice, fortunately). He also misplayed a Nick Markakis line drive into a double that brought Garland’s day to an end. Rob Mackowiak would eventually replace Pods in the ninth, and let’s hope he replaces him in the starting lineup tomorrow.
Garland had a rocky start, giving up three runs in a first inning in which there were no hard-hit balls. But he earned a double play and worked his way out of a few jams, hanging in there long enough to earn his seventh win. It reminded me of his Detroit start early in the season with one exception – he kept the ball in the yard. Garland once again allowed no homers, helping to keep the damage sporadic.
Record: 61-41 |
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